Black Academics Finding Fewer Barriers At Traditionally White Colleges

It "shattered stereotypes in powerful ways," said Dr. Ruth Simmons of her appointment as the first African-American president of New England's Smith College a year ago.

It was also a cause for celebration by many in the academy and much heralding by the national media. But Simmons' appointment occurred north of the Mason-Dixon line.

The real testament to the changing face of the college presidency, some say, is occurring slowly in the South. For example, in 1994, Dr. Lloyd Hackley, a former chancellor of Fayetteville State University, assumed the presidency of the North Carolina Community College System. While a handful of Black presidential appointments were made at traditionally white institutions in the 1980s and early 1990s, they garnered regional publicity but little national attention, according to some of those tapped for the positions.

According to informal estimates, about 50 African Americans now head four-year colleges and universities that are not historically Black. Still more are at the helm of the nation's community colleges and other higher education systems.

But when it comes to tallying the numbers of African-American presidents serving at traditionally white four-year institutions in the South, the numbers dwindle in comparison. When asked recently, Dr. James Walker, president of Middle Tennessee State, was hard pressed to name more than two of his contemporaries "in the Deep South."

`First Wave'

Although their ranks are small, this is just the beginning of the process of more cross-racial appointments to the nation's Southern colleges and universities, said Dr. Franklyn Jenifer, president of the University of Texas-Dallas and the first African American to head a campus in the state's system.

"The pipeline is pregnant with people who are ready to take over these positions," said Jenifer.

"Surles [Carol Surles, president of Texas Woman's University] and myself are just part of the first wave. There are others. Those of us who are doing exceptional jobs in the South have opened doors."

Appointments of African Americans to predominantly white institutions are becoming less of a phenomenon and more of a common practice as "a qualified pool of African Americans and women candidates for presidencies are being taken more seriously than ever before," said Radford University President Douglas Covington.

Covington is not only Radford's first African-American president, but the first African American to head a predominantly white four-year institution -- public or private -- in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

African-American candidates are no longer viewed as "tokens or statistics to include in an affirmative-action applicant pool," adds Covington, who was appointed in June 1995 after serving three years as president of Cheyney State University.

The awesome blend of confidence, personality, professional experience and -- most of all -- credentials now being brought to the table has helped pry open doors to presidencies that have long been closed to African-Americans educators, say many of those who currently hold those positions.

But Covington said he knows from personal experience that being "qualified" doesn't shield an African-American candidate from being tagged "the wrong match" for the top job.

"I think that, in many cases, there are questions in the minds of search committees and governing boards...that an African American heading a predominantly white institution would be a mismatch and that this individual would not bring to the table the kind of experience or attributes that would allow him or her to head such an institution...[in addition] the constituents of such an institution would withdraw their support," said Covington.

College and university presidencies are "situational," said Dr. Mary E. Coleman, chairwoman of the political science department at Jackson State University. Factored into selecting the right candidate, said Coleman, are the goals an institution has set for itself and an understanding of how quickly they can be accomplished.

"An institution hires on the basis of [its] goals, not just on a person's vitae," she added.

Downplaying Race

But as the lingering image of the college presidential prototype slowly fades from white male to a person of color, some say it's more important to emphasize qualifications, rather than race.

When Jenifer was being considered for the post at UT-Dallas, he discouraged support from African-American community leaders in Dallas who were eager to see one of their own in the top university post. "I didn't want them to be supportive of my case because I was Black. I wanted the [university] to make a judgment on my credentials," recalled Jenifer of his 1994 selection.

Middle Tennessee State's Walker, in an address following his appointment, congratulated the university community for "standing up" and disregarding "race, creed and gender" in the selection process. "You're sending a very positive message to this state and this nation," said Walker, who, by his appointment almost five years ago, became the first African American to head a predominantly white four-year institution in Tennessee.

Walker then told reporters, who asked relentlessly, "How does it feel to be the first African-American president?" this: "I am not coming here to be the African-American president. I am a president who happens to be African American. I'm the university president."

Many of Walker's colleagues in the North often urge him to leave the South, a region known more for its racial hostility than the "hospitality" that Walker said he has come to know in Tennessee.

When Dr. Adam W. Herbert was named president of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville in 1989, the local higher education community was accustomed to seeing an African American in a top academic post, said Herbert, whose ascent began as vice president of the North Miami campus of Florida International University.

Discussions of race, the African-American presidents interviewed agreed, is counterproductive. According to Herbert, making race an issue can bottleneck social and academic progress. But, at the same time, the presidents said they have made increasing the recruitment and retention of students of color on their campuses a priority.

"When I came here there was a perception in the African-American community that there wasn't a great deal of interest in students of color," recalled Herbert, who has since deployed students in the university's school of education into inner-city schools for training. Herbert said he is also using Black church pulpits to recruit underrepresented students.

Early in his presidency, Tennessee's Walker made a public pitch for more African-American male teachers for the state's public schools. "African-American males will have to work on stepping up to bat," Walker said.

With Surles's appointment to Texas Woman's University came the unofficial, but demanding, duty of fulfilling a host of speaking requests. Many engagements have taken her off the traditional circuit and into rural Black and Hispanic communities where she has visited out-of-the-way churches with small congregations. She, in fact, became the university's first president to host members of Dallas's Latino community in her official quarters.

"The relationship between the university and the minority community has not been a strong one," Surles says.

Slow to Change

Despite some successes in the South, the winds of change in Southern higher education aren't blowing as vigorously as they should be, said Dr. James E. Blackwell, an expert on college desegregation.

"It's been slow and tedious," said Blackwell, describing change there.

"There is still resistance at Southern institutions to put[ting] Blacks in top positions of leadership -- such as those of dean [and] assistant department heads .... "Even rarer are appointments of African Americans to presidencies at predominantly white colleges and universities, said Blackwell, a sociologist and professor emeritus of the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

In the 1980s, a tide was turning in Florida, recalled Herbert. The stage was set and the time was right for him to become president of the University of North Florida.

"My appointment was more likely to occur here [the Southeast] than in the Deep South -- especially during the 1980s," said Herbert. "I don't think places like Mississippi or Alabama [at that time] would have been able to place an African American in a top leadership position."

More than a decade later, Louis Westerfield snared his slot as the first African-American dean of the University of Mississippi Law School.

RELATED ARTICLE:

The following is a list of colleges led by African-American presidents at institutions that are not historically Black:

Institution                          State  President

Atlanta Metropolitan Coll              GA   Harold E. Wade
Bank Street Coll of Education          NY   Augusta Souza Kappner
Bowling Green State University         OH   Sidney A. Ribeau
Brevard Comm Coll-Titusville           FL   Joe Lee Smith
Brookhaven Coll                        TX   Walter G. Bumphus
Bryant Coll                            RI   William E. Truehart
Bunker Hill Comm Coll                  MA   C. Scully Stikes
California Sch of Prof Psychology      CA   Lisa M. Porche-Burke
California State
 University-Fullerton                  CA   Milton A. Gordon
California State
 University-Los Angeles                CA   James M. Rosser
California State
 University-Northridge                 CA   Blenda J. Wilson
California State
 University-Stanislaus                 CA   Marvalene Hughes
Capital Community/
 Technical-Woodland                    CT   Conrad L. Mallet
Central Virginia Comm Coll             VA   Belle S. Wheelan
Central Washington University          WA   Ivory V. Nelson
Chandler-Gilbert Comm Coll             AZ   Arnette S. Ward
Chicago State University               IL   Dolores E. Cross
Chicago Theological Seminary           IL   Kenneth B. Smith
City College of San Francisco          CA   Del M. Anderson
City Colleges of
 Chicago-Kennedy-King                  IL   Wayne D. Watson
City Colleges of
 Chicago-Malcolm X                     IL   Zerrie D. Campbell
City Colleges of
 Chicago-Olive-Harvey                  IL   Lawrence M. Cox
City Colleges of Chicago-System        IL   Ronald J. Temple
College of Alameda                     CA   George Herring
Colorado State University              CO   Albert C. Yates
Comm Coll of Allegheny-Allegheny       PA   J. David Griffin
Compton Comm Coll                      CA   Byron O. Skinner
Crozer Theological Seminary            NY   James H. Evans
CUNY-Bronx Comm Coll                   NY   Leo A. Corbie
CUNY-LaGuardia                         NY   Raymond C. Bowen
CUNY-Medgar Evers                      NY   Edison O. Jackson
CUNY-New York City Coll                NY   Yolanda T. Moses
CUNY-New York City Technical Coll      NY   Charles W. Merideth
CUNY-Queens Coll                       NY   Allen L. Sessoms
CUNY-York Coll                         NY   Marcia V. Keizs
Cuyahoga Comm Coll                     OH   Jerry Sue Thornton
Cypress Coll                           CA   Christine Johnson
DeKalb Coll                            GA   Jacquelyn M. Belcher
Delaware Technical-Terry Campus        DE   Marguerite M. Johnson
Drew University of Medicine
 & Science                             CA   Reed V. Tuckson
Durham Technical Comm Col              NC   Phail Wynn
Eastern Connecticut State
 University                            CT   David G. Carter
El Centro Coll                         TX   Wright L. Lassiter
Essex County Coll                      NJ   A. Zachary Yamba
Florida Comm Coll-Kent                 FL   Dennis P. Gallon
Florida Comm Coll-North                FL   Ezekiel W. Bryant
George Corley Wallace State
 Comm Coll                             AL   Julius R. Brown
Highland Park Comm Coll                MI   Thomas Lloyd
Houston Comm Coll System               TX   James Harding
Houston Comm Coll-Northeast            TX   Elaine P. Adams
Indiana University Northwest           IN   Hilda Richards
Jefferson Comm Coll                    KY   Richard Green
Laney Coll                             CA   Odell Johnson
Lansing Comm Coll                      MI   Abel B. Sykes
Los Angeles Southwest Coll             CA   Carolyn G. Williams
Los Angeles Trade-Technical
 Coll                                  CA   Thomas L. Stevens
Los Angeles Valley Coll                CA   Tyree O Wieder
Los Rios Comm Coll District            CA   Queen Randall
Martin University                      IN   Boniface Hardin
Miami-Dade Comm Coll-Homestead         FL   Roy Phillips
Middle Tennessee State
 University                            TN   James E. Walker
Montclair State University             NJ   Irvin D. Reid
Montgomery College-Rockville           MD   Floyd Cumberbatch
Moraine Valley Comm Coll               IL   Vernon O. Crawley
New York Theological Seminary          NY   M. William Howard
North Carolina Comm Coll
 System                                NC   Lloyd Hackley
North Seattle Comm Coll                WA   Constance W. Rice
Northwestern Connecticut
 Comm Coll                             CT   R. Eileen Baccus
Occidental Coll                        CA   John B. Slaughter
Parkland Coll                          IL   Zelema M. Harris
Pasco-Hernando Comm Cell               FL   Robert W. Judson
Passaic County Comm Coll               NJ   Elliott Collins
Penn Valley Comm Coll                  MO   E. Paul Williams
Radford University                     VA   H. Douglas Covington
Ramirez College of Business            PR   Rogena Kyles
Reid State Technical Coll:             AL   Ullysses McBride
Roanoke-Chowan Comm Coll               NC   Harold E. Mitchell
Rowan College of New Jersey            NJ   Herman D. James
Roxbury Comm Coll                      MA   Grace C. Brown
Saddleback Coll                        CA   Ned Doffoney
Salem Comm Coll                        NJ   Linda C. Jolly
San Diego City Coll                    CA   Jerome Hunter
San Diego Mesa Coll                    CA   Constance M. Carroll
San Francisco Comm Coll
 District                              CA   Del M. Anderson
Seattle Central Comm Coll              WA   Charles H. Mitchell
Shelby State Comm Coll                 TN   Mark L. Stansbury
Smith Coll                             MA   Ruth J. Simmons
Sojourner-Douglass Coll                MD   Charles W. Simmons
Solano Comm Coll                       CA   Stan R. Arterberry
Southeastern University                DC   Earl M. Mitchell
Springfield Coll                       MA   Randolph W. Bromery
State Comm Coll of East
 St. Louis                             IL   Janet Finch
St. Louis Comm Coll Center             MO   Gwendolyn W. Stephenson
St. Louis Comm
 Coll-Florissant Valley                MO   Irving P. McPhail
St. Louis Comm
 Coll-Forest Park                      MO   Henry D. Shannon
St. Philip's Coll                      TX   Charles A. Taylor
SUNY College at Buffalo                NY   F.C. Richardson
SUNY-Old Westbury                      NY   L. Eudora Pettigrew
SUNY-Health Science
 Center-Brooklyn                       NY   Russell L. Miller
Tarrant County Junior
 Coll-South                            TX   Oswell Person
Texas Woman's University               TX   Carol D. Surles
The Richard Stockton Col.
 of New Jersey                         NJ   Vera King Farris
Thomas A. Edison State Coll            NJ   George A. Pruitt
Three Rivers Comm Coll                 CT   Booker T. DeVaughn
University of
Maryland-Baltimore Co.                 MD   Freeman A. Hrabowski
University of Michigan-Dearborn        MI   James C. Renick
University of Michigan-Flint           MI   Charlie Nelms
University of Nebraska-Kearney         NE   Gladys Styles Johnston
University of North Florida            FL   Adam W. Herbert
University of Texas-Dallas             TX   Franklyn G. Jenifer
University of Wisconsin-Parkside       WI   Eleanor J. Smith
Wayne County Comm Coll                 MI   Curtis L. Ivery
Wright State University                OH   Harley E. Flack

SOURCE: This list was drawn from the membership lists of the American Council on Education, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, and the American Association of Community Colleges. It may not be all-inclusive.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group